Introduction to Battles
When armies meet on the campaign map and one faction chooses to attack and engage in battle, the game zooms into a geographically appropriate battlefield. Battles take place in real time.Reinforcements arrive at the edge of the map and must march to the battle.This section covers unit traits and attributes; and Before Battle Deployment, During Battle and Post Battle advice. Unit Traits Unit Traits describe the special skills or functions a unit may have that make it more effective in combat. Effective Against Armor/Armor Piercing: Ignores 50% of the target's armor bonus to defense, good against heavy units. Units with the Naptha Bomb, such as the Egyptian Naffatun, have this trait. Bonus Fighting Cavalry: '' Attack bonus against cavalry of +4 or +8, good for defending against cavalry charges. Units are almost always spear/pikemen, and are used to protect missile units from cavalry. ''Form Wedge: This formation is available to some cavalry and forms the unit into a triangular wedge, to allow them to break through infantry lines. Form Schiltrom: Similar to a circular phalanx. The men form a tight circle, put their spears out, in a defensive posture. Useless as an attack formation, but useful for defending a location from multiple sides. It is best used for defending the city/castle square or narrow passages/choke points. Can be heavily damaged by missile units if left unsupported by cavalry screens. Form Cantabrian Circle: This formation is a single-file rotating circle of horse archers designed to maintain a steady stream of missile fire on an enemy formation. It is a useful deterrent to slow down attacks. This formation limits the horse archer’s mobility and spreads them out making them harder to control. Missile Attack: This indicates an attack ability using the various missile weapons. These include javelins, bullets, arrows, naptha bombs, or crossbow bolts. Artillery units have different values for anti-troop and anti-building attacks due to the nature of the weapon type. Missile attacks ignore the target's defense skill, and some types of missile attacks ignore 50% of their armor. All missile units have a melee attack. Charge Bonus/Powerful Charge: An extra attack added to the attacks this unit makes when charging. This applies only to cavalry units since other units have a small bonus for charging. Remember that cavalry charges make powerful attacks. Combat Bonus in Woods/Snow/Woods and Snow: A combat bonus for units in the woods, snow or both. This probably applies to both attack and defend situations. Can't Hide: This applies to artillery units and the commanding general’s unit in battle. Regardless of terrain, the enemy always has a LOS to that unit. (Very) Long Range Missiles: This ability gives missile units an increased range of fire. Unit Attributes Unit Attributes are a physical description of the unit that defines the unit’s statistics. Soldiers: The number of soldiers making up the unit. This depends on unit scale determined at campaign startup. Experience: This ranges from 0-9 and increases through participating in battle Units can start with increased experience when recruited in settlements with the proper guilds or other buildings. Some guilds endow every unit of a certain type with experience bonuses. Attack: Indicates the unit’s strength when attacking. Factors such as terrain, an opponent’s, experience, unit upgrades, et al, can change this. The higher the unit’s attack strength the better. Missile units have separate ratings for melee attack versus missile attack but have no combat advantages in terms of bonuses other than to ignore the enemy’s defense skill bonuses with a missile attack. Charge Bonus: Similar to Attack, this shows the unit’s attack bonus when charging. Weapon Type: The types include Crude, Light, Heavy, Missile and Artillery. The type of unit determines the weapon type. Weapon Type and unit quality go hand in hand; crude weapons makes for a weaker unit. The special traits of the other weapon types are explained in other sections. Defense: There are three different Defense ratings: Armor, Shield, and Defense skill. These three ratings are used in separate situations when being attacked. Defense upgrades will increase the armor rating and is the best type of defense for units. The table below shows the percentage of ratings that are added for the total defense strength for each type of attack. Hit Points: This is the number of clean hits a soldier in the unit can take before he dies. Not all hits are "clean". Almost all units have 1 hit point. Exceptions are generals and their bodyguards. The bodyguards have 2 hit points, and a general can have in excess of 10 hit points (the Brutally Scarred Trait gives a general +8 Hit Points, and the Healthy trait series adds more). Cost: This is the cost to recruit the unit. Generals can reduce this cost. Upkeep: This is the cost per turn to keep this unit active in the military. Militia units have 0 upkeep in cities where they were recruited or retrained which aids the economy and provides a garrison. Focus on archers/crossbowmen as the main free upkeep forces. These units are the most useful during a siege which is what garrison troops are for in the first place. Deployment Before Battle Field Battle Deployment of your troops depends on the role the army must play in the upcoming battle. The choice of tactics employed will vary depending on the terrain. Hills, rivers, and trees all factor in the decision on how to deploy and win the battle. Terrain is irrelevant for a siege battle, so sieges are covered separately. If attacking, place units as close to the enemy as possible. The exact position where the armies will clash is determined by the distance they must travel to engage, so remember to support all units. Do not leave missile units exposed for too long; keep spearman close by for protection. Initially, try to take out the enemy’s missile troops with friendly missile troops first while the rest of the army advances. This will minimize the casualties to the troops that have to get up close and personal with the enemy. Position cavalry for successful charges, especially against the enemy’s flanks. Avoid charges uphill or into woods, as both of those conditions will weaken or kill the effectiveness of the charge. If equipped with enough cavalry units, divide into one large group and one small group on either flank of your army. Position the larger group to deliver the decisive blow and the smaller group to encircle the enemy and eliminate their archers and other missile units in the rear area. If on the defense, keep all units, especially missile units, on the highest elevation available. This weakens the enemy’s charge and reduces the effectiveness of their missile attacks. If equipped with cavalry, separate them from the other forces and position to flank the enemy or hit their missile units in the rear. Calvary makes short work of unprotected archer and ballistae units. Generally avoid attacking an army that is much stronger. If there is no choice then plan the strategy carefully; use harassing attacks with archers, fake a charge with cavalry; try to get the enemy to move which will remove any terrain benefits they are receiving. If on the defensive, try a surprise attack. This is all situational and depends on what the enemy does and what types of units make up both armies. Ambushes can occur when units are waiting in the woods. Successful ambushes are useful because the enemy will be in marching formation, not battle formation making them very vulnerable. There will be an opportunity to deploy the army so come in from the sides and really smash them up. Give cavalry and missile units the best positions, since infantry will need a little time to reach the enemy – time they could use to muster a capable defense. However, missile and cavalry units leave the enemy with no more than 15 seconds to prepare, allowing time to smash their lines and inflict some heavy damage to them. Right click on the enemy leader's portrait to see exactly what forces he has. Sieges When attacking a settlement, keep everyone but the siege weapons and missile units back, out of the range of enemy archers and towers. Have missile units focus on enemy missile units if possible as they are usually engaged in targeting the approaching siege equipment. Cavalry are not useful until an entrance has been gained into the settlement and even then their ability to charge the enemy is minimal due to the close confines of the breach. Calvary does help when chasing the fleeing enemy through the streets and racing to the town center. Reaching the town center and holding it for several minutes will win the day. Siege weapons like catapults and bombards slow the foward advance of the army but can also reduce casualties and open a breach into a settlement without putting themselves at much risk and keep everyone else out of danger. As the defender, the pre-battle deployment depends on what units the enemy has. If the enemy has the ability to bombard the walls from a distance (catapults, etc), do not put any units on the walls. Position most units a short distance behind the wall and be prepared to defend whatever breach occurs. Keep some units near the towers to reduce the number of the attackers as they come through a breach. If the enemy is using battering rams, put all missile units on the walls to cause heavy casualties before the ram reaches the walls. Keep some melee units (spearmen) on the walls in case the enemy’s ladders or siege towers reach their destination and the enemy comes over the top. This will negate a numbers advantage for the enemy as they can only deploy so many men at a time with ladders, etc. During Battle Field Battle A basic plan of attack should involve missile units out front and moving into range of the part of the enemy line that is going to be attacked by the spearmen and the large cavalry group. Have spearmen close by so they can move in front of the archers once the archers are in range and begin to fire. While the archers are firing begin advancing the spearmen towards the enemy line and engage. Once the spearmen engage, re-target the archers to other enemy units to avoid killing friendly troops. While this is occurring, move the large cavalry group into position on one flank, and move the smaller cavalry group to circle around the other flank to the enemy’s rear area and attack all vulnerable missile units. Have the larger cavalry group smash into the enemy line after they have been sprayed with arrows and are engaged with the advancing spearmen. Make sure to double click to get the cavalry units to charge the enemy. The combined arms use of missiles, spear and cavalry should break down the enemy and set them to rout. To counter this approach when on the defense one must stop the suppression or stop the flanking. Stop their suppression with a flanking charge and stop flanking attacks by meeting their flanking forces with cavalry. Use missiles, artillery and guns to soften up the enemy advance. This will allow the infantry to destroy enemy suppressors or withstand enemy flankers once the engagement has begun. Remember to keep missile units from hitting friendly troops. Once the spearmen or cavalry engage, re-target the archers to other enemy units. If possible, try to flank the enemy forces with missile units and shoot at them from the side or back. Missile units ignore defense skill which makes attacking from the sides and back very deadly. Sieges To successfully attack a settlement the walls must be breached with ladders and siege towers or the front gate must be broken down using a battering ram. Battering rams are less effective against the larger stone castles and fortresses, but work great against the wooden forts. If defending a settlement and notice the enemy does not have adequate siege equipment (like catapults or ladders), then consider sending some units out to disable their ability to breach the walls (cavalry if available). If the walls remain unbreached and the enemy has no means to effect a breach, then return the attacking unit back to within the settlement walls and win. To win as the defender all enemy groups must be dead or routing. Once the message asking if the player would like to continue the battle appears, the siege has ended. From here the task is to pursue them and take them prisoner, they are not killed during the pursuit. Enemies rout when the odds facing them seem insurmountable but some units are of a higher quality and do not break so easily. For example, a general's personal bodyguard will seldom rout unless surrounded by odds of about 9 to 1 or worse. The bodyguard is capable of charging into enemy lines and breaking off the action to do it again for shock effect; only when trapped do they begin to waver. Peasants, who were more or less kidnapped and forced to fight against their will, are likely to start routing before a charge has even hit them. Post Battle After the battle a scroll opens with the ransom details. The player must decide the issue of prisoners. Prisoners captured in battle have three fates awaiting them: Ransom: '' The game decides a price based on the number and recruitment cost of the prisoners. The other faction decides whether to pay the price or not (factions cannot pay more than they possess). If the ransom is paid, the prisoners are returned to fight another day; if not, those units are automatically executed. Ransoming units is not considered noble nor evil, just practical. ''Release: '' The enemy gets the prisoners returned for free. This increases a general's chivalry, but may have to face them again in the future. ''Execution: If there are a large number of prisoners and a risk the enemy getting them back will be a major problem later on, execute them. This increases a general's dread. Excessive execution lowers a faction's reputation but with the game objective in mind, it matters little because the other factions have to be destroyed anyway.